	Environmental Friendly Scooter
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PGO launches environmental friendly scooter

2003/3/20 Laura Ho, TAIPEI, Taiwan, The China Post

Motive Power Industry Co., who is known for its brand of PGO Scooters, has won the 2003 Taiwan Symbol of Excellence Award for its i-Charge series.
"The i-Charge series won the award mainly for its environmental friendliness. Its carbon monoxide emissions are 40 percent lower than traditional models," said Michael Hwang, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Motive Power Industry.

Most scooters on the market cause serious air pollution due to incomplete fuel consumption.

Cooperating with the Japanese company Keihin, Motive Power has come up with a new design, also called the Engine Management System (EMS), to enhance better fuel consumption.

The EMS has incorporated a sensor in the i-Charge's emission system to detect incomplete fuel consumption.

When the sensor detects an abnormality, it will pass the information to a chip inside the scooter to adjust the amount of fuel channeled to its engine. The fuel consumption of the i-Charge series is, therefore, more economical.

As the design enhances better fuel consumption, one liter of fuel can run 8.36 kilometers longer than traditional designs.

Hwang also indicated that the new EMS design will boost the life cycle of the engines by one-third, which will increase the longevity of their scooters.

However, the price of i-Charge series is NT$6,000 to NT$8,000 higher than traditional models.

"From the viewpoint of a manufacturer, the production costs of EMS scooters are 15 percent to 20 percent higher than traditional ones," Hwang pointed out.

As Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) will launch a new campaign to promote EMS-incorporated scooters this year, Hwang hopes that the new series will post better sales records this year.

With 220 employees, PGO Scooter has been manufacturing scooters for 25 years.

It is one of the few scooter manufacturers in Taiwan that are capable of producing scooter engines by themselves.

However, the brand has acquired only a relatively small share of Taiwan's scooter market.

In order to achieve an economy of scale, Motive Power is active in the overseas market. It has shifted its strategy in overseas markets to meet the demands of different regions.

Hwang indicated that the company has enjoyed a good sales record of 20,000 scooters per annum in Europe. Germany and Italy are major markets for PGO in Europe.

Facing fierce competition from mainland brands, PGO has actively developed other European markets such as Denmark and Sweden.

"In Sweden, PGO posts annual sales of 9,000 to 10,000 scooters. Some models enjoy as much as a 30 percent market share in Sweden," said Hwang.

Apart from Europe, the company does not just sell entire scooters.

For example, the company has teamed up with a Malaysian company to help establish a production facility there in return for the Malaysian company using PGO engines in the future. "This is a good way to achieve economy of scale," stressed Hwang.

"As PGO is a well-known brand in the overseas market, we take different approaches to deal with different markets," Hwang added.

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